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Dec 26, 2015

Here is a great talk at Google about more advanced 3d printing materials and their properties. The talk is delivered by Walter Voit.

Talk description:

Adaptive 3D Technologies makes the toughest - and softest - 3D printed polymers on the market by creating custom materials specifically designed to be 3D printed. Advanced processing techniques eliminate anisotropy and result in durable, high quality parts that can be used directly in practical applications far beyond current stereotypes of 3D printing (prototyping). Walter Voit is the president of Adaptive 3D Technologies and an Assistant Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas.

Spiritplumber developed a small DIY digital fabrication manufacturing cell in his closet. He has made and installed a 3D printer, hybrid tool (extruder / laser cutter / liquid printer) and organometallic filament maker.

Very cool setup Spiritplumber! :-)

Do you see a smoke detector surrounded by burn marks? :-) Lesson to be learned there ...

Dec 20, 2015

12V? Nah ...
Moritz Walter wants to power his print bed from the mains power line with 110 / 230 V!

Project description:

Like many, I'm fed up with the common MK2B heated bed. It has about 1.2 Ω when wired in 12 V configuration and 4.8 when wired in 24 V configuration. Both times it outputs about 120 W of heat when driven by the appropriate voltage, resulting heatup times to print temperature of 10 to 20 minutes.

Heatup time can be reduced to 2 minutes by simply driving it with 24 V while wiring it in 12 V configuration, but well, this almost max out a seperate 500 W 24 V power supply I dedicated to driving the heated bed. Additional requirements for this setup are at least AWG 15 wire and a high current MOSFET or SSR.

The additional cost of a 500W 24 V power supply, high current SSR and heavy wire is not neglectable at all, since the can easily be half of a printers price tag. Also, bulky power supplys and wires do not contribute to the overall design and weight aspects of a 3D printer.

There are many benefits of a mains voltage heated bed: I will be driven directly from mains, skips the need for an expensive power supply and can be driven by a cheap low current SSR without heatsink. It's also cheap and provides a structural support for your printing plate, be it glass, tufnol/garolite or PEI - which silicone heater pads do not do.

Thus, a mains voltage heated bed must exist, and this project is dedicated to make it real. Additionally, this is also an attempt in making this the safest heated bed available. If you have concerns with the design, please share your ideas in the comments.

Fouche 3D printing well known for their large functional parts like 3d printed car jack, just released the video of full sized fully functional 3d printed DIY acoustic guitar. We have seen 3d printed electric guitars before, but they are simple to make since there is no resonant body.

There have been acoustic guitars 3d printed earlier, but they were small, made from several parts or made on an industrial 3d printer.

Dec 5, 2015

I have seen the future! Changing already 3d printed objects without the need to 3d print them again! Group of researchers developed this method that uses multifinctional 3d printer with laser 3d scanner and CNC milling head to make changes to the already 3d printed object to add or subtract from the previous design.

You can also repair failed prints and make changes on the fly. The developers call this system "Patching". It saves a lot of time and material. Imagine spending few minutes repairing object that would take hours to reprint!

Seeing it in action is very impressive:

Hopefully this technique will find wider application and adoption on mainstream machines and design/control software.

Project description:

Personal fabrication is currently a one-way process: Once an object has been fabricated with a 3D printer, it cannot be changed anymore; any change requires printing a new version from scratch. In this paper, we propose a different approach: instead of re-printing the entire object from scratch, we suggest patching the existing object and replacing only the unsatisfactory parts. This saves material and reduces waste, making a first step towards more sustainable 3D printing.

This project is a collaboration between Hasso Plattner Institute and Cornell University.

Researchers at Hasso Plattner Institute have made several 3d fabrication project with laser cutting and other methods. Here is the new one: LaserStacker where they use a laser cutter to weld together 3d objects.

They even made functional scissors.

Project description:

LaserStacker uses the laser cutter to not only cut but also to weld. Users place not one acrylic sheet, but a stack of acrylic sheets into their cutter. In a single process, LaserStacker cuts each individual layer to shape (through all layers above it), welds layers by melting material at their interface, and heals undesired cuts in higher layers. When users take out the object from the laser cutter, it is already assembled.

OMG NOOOOO ... Apple files a patent for a 3d printer that prints colored objects with color being applied by separate nozzle. Maybe it's a tipe of defensive patenting or some corporate IP strategy. I hope they develop it and make it cool, but after Apple Pen fiasco I'm not getting my hopes up ...

Apple has filed for a new patent connected to 3d printing and molding technologies:

Apple’s patent application covers a method for 3D printing investment molds to be filled with molten amorphous alloy. These alloys are configured to form a bulk metallic glass (BMG) on cooling. BMGs, (also known as Bulk Amporhous Alloys) are a new class of metallic alloys that are extremely strong, with superior elastic strain limits and resistance under shock impact. They are therefore ideal for the manufacturing of electronic device housings and cases.

Nov 30, 2015

MeshPoint is a great project developed by some of my friends which should help people endangered in emergency situations and emergency services staff to get rugged and reliable internet access point.

It is developed extensively with help of 3d printers (Ultimaker 2) and I will post a more detailed article soon. This technology is currently being used to provide internet access to refugees in Croatia. There will be several versions of rugged enclosure with batteries, 4G access and mash WiFi.

We present “RevoMaker”, a self-contained 3D printer that creates direct out-of-the-printer functional prototypes, using less build material and with substantially less reliance on support structures.

By modifying a standard low-cost FDM printer with a revolving cuboidal platform and printing partitioned geometries around cuboidal facets, we achieve a multidirectional additive prototyping process to reduce the print and support material use. Our optimization framework considers various orientations and sizes for the cuboidal base.

The mechanical, electronic, and sensory components are preassembled on the flattened laser-cut facets and enclosed inside the cuboid when closed. We demonstrate RevoMaker directly printing a variety of customized and fully-functional product prototypes, such as computer mice and toys, thus illustrating the new affordances of 3D printing for functional product design.

Nov 19, 2015

It uses sand and cement mixture and a liquid soil hardener called polypavement as binding agent. Powder bed is loaded manually :-) but a mechanism could be developed in the futre.
Printed objects are rough but the concept is interesting for artistic purposes and concrete furniture where you can get more complex organic forms.

Full construction guide with plans and operational instructions can be found at:

Nov 18, 2015

Aurora Flight Sciences, a Virginia-based manufacturer specializing in advanced UAV systems, is pushing the envelope of UAV design by teaming up with Stratasys to create the world’s first jet-powered, 3D printed aircraft.

Using 80% 3D printed parts, the UAV is composed of Stratasys’ ULTEM™ 9085 lightweight material to achieve flight speeds of over 150 Mph. The high-speed system boasts an impressive 9 ft wingspan and weighs in at only 33 lbs.

Nov 10, 2015

Here are two projects that demonstrate how you can make very large models of cities or terrain by connecting smaller pieces in larger frame.

3D Printed Model of San Francisco

Video description:

Behind the scenes 3D printed model of San Francisco:
Connex 500 printed 3d model of a portion of San Francisco. The model was created to aid real-estate developer Tishman Speyer in telling the story of urban development in the rapidly changing SOMA neighborhood. It can help with urban planning and building construction decisions that are better understood with the kind of physicality that only a real-world 3D replica offers compared to digital images or digital models.

Nov 9, 2015

Disney Research released their software demonstration which shows how it is possible to automatically design 3d printable robots that can move with different cinematic and motion systems.

You basically just input what you want a robot to do and algorithms calculate the 3d printable design. I see dark future for human engineers job security.

Now it is used for small robotic creatures, but I can see it being used to developed large military mechas or smaller mission customizable war bots.

From project description:

We present an interactive design system that allows casual users to quickly create 3D-printable robotic creatures. Our approach automates the tedious parts of the design process while providing sample room for customization of morphology, proportions, gait and motion style.

The technical core of our framework is an efficient optimization-based solution that generates stable motions for legged robots of arbitrary designs. An intuitive set of editing tools allows the user to interactively explore the space of feasible designs and to study the relationship between morphological features and the resulting motions. Fabrication blueprints are generated automatically such that the robot designs can be manufactured using 3D-printing and off-the-shelf servo motors.

We demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution by designing six robotic creatures with a variety of morphological features: two, four or five legs, point or area feet, actuated spines and different proportions. We validate the feasibility of the designs generated with our system through physics simulations and physically-fabricated prototypes.

Oct 30, 2015

Disney Research developed the software to automatically designs 3d printable connectors. It looks amazing if it really works as described.

Where will this invention go? What will happen to it? It will probably end up in some corporations intellectual property portfolio.

From project description:

We present AutoConnect, an automatic method that creates customized, 3D-printable connectors attaching two physical objects together. Users simply position and orient virtual models of the two objects that they want to connect and indicate some auxiliary information such as weight and dimensions. Then, AutoConnect creates several alternative designs that users can choose from for 3D printing. The design of the connector is created by combining two holders, one for each object. We categorize the holders into two types. The first type holds standard objects such as pipes and planes. We utilize a database of parameterized mechanical holders and optimize the holder shape based on the grip strength and material consumption. The second type holds free-form objects. These are procedurally generated shell-gripper designs created based on geometric analysis of the object. We illustrate the use of our method by demonstrating many examples of connectors and practical use cases.

Harcoreta made this incredible 3d printed jet engine for RC applications modeled on GE GEnx-1B. It is very detailed Electric Ducted Fan (EDF) motor with NTM 1400kv 35mm brushless motor located inside the core which is cooled by a small impeller. It even features working thrust reversal system.
It was printed on Reprap Prusa I3 at 0.1mm layer height and then smoothed by using an acrylic thinner.

34 mm diamenter 18 blade internal turbine, installed on the back shaft of the motor, It's designed only for cooling the motor. Over this section there are a sequence of stator vanes and supports to optimize the airflow. This internal airflow could produce thrust but in any case it'll be a few grams.

Scale looking nacelle, the major differences are the simplified engine pylon and the minor reduction on the exhaust area, about 95% fsa

Thrust reverser, complete system with translating cowl, blocker doors and cascades. The most complicated parts that must work.

Oct 25, 2015

Makerarm is another step towards full desktop manufacturing system. It is a robotic arm with many tool attachments for 3d printing, milling, drawing foam cutting, PCB manufacturing and other.
It still looks like hobby or entry-level system but we are slowly moving towards prosumer home production robots.
It supports both FDM and SLA 3d printing.

Oct 18, 2015

Can you weld wood? it looks like you can. It can be done by applying friction and mechanical vibration in what is known as friction welding. The cellulose and lignin in wood melt at some 180 C and bond together forming a welded seam.
The weld seam has a simillar strength to glued one. It also means that no more toxic glues and adhesives should be used to bond wooden parts.

Here is video presentation of wood welding :

This technology could be used in 3d printing in same way some industrial metal printers use sheet lamination induced by ultrasonic vibration. It could be also used in FDM as the same process could be used to "melt" the wood and extrude it in layers.

Someone created portable working railgun that shoots metal and carbon projectiles. The railgun uses 6 300J, 350V, 5500uF capacitors which combined weigh 20lbs and can deliver >1050V and 1.8kJ of energy to the projectile. Most of the structural parts are 3d printed. The gun is huge but it works.

Here is video of it firing (bad word) a small carbon cylinder. The power is simillar to an airgun pellet.

It is an impressive engineering and design project but it doesnt have any real.-world applications :-) Yet.

Oct 15, 2015

Rock Print is a robotic 3d printer that lays textile ropes on bed of stones conceting them and makong an architectural shape.

Rock Print in action:

Project description:

Rock Print is the first architectural installation to be built from low-grade granular material and constructed by robotic machines. Conceived as an intriguing vertical object, the installation presents a radically new approach to The State of the Art of Architecture – the official title of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015 – and brings forward a new category of random packed, potentially fully reusable, poly-dispersed jammed structures that can be automatically fabricated in non-standard shapes. Following an initial period of robotic assembly, the installation will comprise a large-scale architectural artefact in its completed form, exhibiting distinct features, such as, for example, full material reversibility and the respective reusability of the aggregated materials; structurally active interlocking, differentiated structural performance, while yielding high geometric flexibility and articulation. Performing a full scale 3D “rock printing process” that uses the self-aggregating capacities of the material itself, this visionary project is the first collaborative installation by Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich, and the Self-Assembly Lab, MIT. The Chicago Architecture Biennial will open on 3rd October 2015 and will close on 3rd January 2016. For more information: www.chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org

Selected consultants Walt + Galmarini AG Support The project is supported by ETH Zurich and the Department of Architecture as well as by an ETH Zurich Research Grant. It is co-supported by MIT’s Department of Architecture, the MIT International Design Center, and an MIT International Science and Technology Initiative (MISTI) Grant.

Oct 11, 2015

MIT CSAIL is an innovation powerhouse and they presented their Multifab 3D printer that can use up to 10 different materials, uses computer vision to adjust operations and can embed objects into prints. It even cost just around 7000 USD. Hopefully the MIT will release some of the designs under open source license.

MultiFab video presentation:

MultiFab description:

We have developed a multi-material 3D printing platform that is high-resolution, low-cost, and extensible. The key part of our platform is an integrated machine vision system. This system allows for self-calibration of printheads, 3D scanning, and a closed-feedback loop to enable print corrections. The integration of machine vision with 3D printing simplifies the overall platform design and enables new applications such as 3D printing over auxiliary parts.

Furthermore, our platform dramatically expands the range of parts that can be 3D printed by simultaneously supporting up to 10 different materials that can interact optically and mechanically. The platform achieves a resolution of at least 40 micrometers by utilizing piezoelectric inkjet printheads adapted for 3D printing. The hardware is low cost (less than $7,000) since it is built exclusively from off-the-shelf components.

The architecture is extensible and modular -- adding, removing, and exchanging printing modules can be done quickly. We provide a detailed analysis of the system's performance. We also demonstrate a variety of fabricated multi-material objects.

Oct 7, 2015

Here is a small tutorial links compilation that will grow in the future on how to make a simple and ultra cheap 3d printer or CNC from reclaimed or junk electronic and structural parts. Tutorials are very detailed and will help you to start with this technology, educate someone or save some parts form trash.

Apis Core presents their construction 3d printer which has an interesting new design somewhat similar to polar movement machines. It looks like it has many advantages over regular three axis setups of current building printers.

Here is one of the cheapest DIY 3d printers you can make, with cost at around 60 USD, and it is DLP SLA machine!
It also comes with very detailed construction guide made by the developer "matstermind".

How can the price be so low? Mostly by using used or scraped parts. You can see it in the parts list below.

(optional) Ability to etch circuit boards (you can protoboard/breadboard it if you have to)

(possibly) 5v, .5A power supply. Some laser decks can be powered by the USB port by the Arduino, some may need a power supply to be plugged into the Arduino or M+ on the easydriver to make the motor move. It will depend on the power of your USB port. My deck did not need one.

Total=$55.5

(optional for frame) scrap wood for free or 2x4ft MDF board or $10 from hardware store

Looks rough and simple with wood frame. I like the style ...

Chimera is named inspired by mythological creature that is made up of three different animals since this printer is made by using the recycled/modified parts of three different categories (projector, toys, and old computer stuff), hence the name.